Last night I was distracted cause I like to root for guys like Jeremy who get a chance to shine in the league.. but now back to my own team.

Deron... when will that competitive fire come out? When will he just feel like his back is against the wall and he's gonna fight his way out. I mean.. this season it looks like he's doing the bare minimum to be considered an All-star, let alone at one point be considered the best PG in the league. Yeah his teammates aren't the best but you still gotta go out there and give it your best. Be the leader, and inspire.

I just want to know when will that happen. Is he basically saving himself to see if we have Dwight and then go hard?

It's frustrating. As many of you know, I'm a big Illini fan so I've been sympathetic/apologetic to Deron's output, but when we're letting guys like Jeremy Lin look like prime Steve Nash on us.. we've got a problem. Sure he was getting burned in pick and rolls cause our defense on that was terrible..but come on Deron! Fight your way out!

Last night I was distracted cause I like to root for guys like Jeremy who get a chance to shine in the league.. but now back to my own team.

Deron... when will that competitive fire come out? When will he just feel like his back is against the wall and he's gonna fight his way out. I mean.. this season it looks like he's doing the bare minimum to be considered an All-star, let alone at one point be considered the best PG in the league. Yeah his teammates aren't the best but you still gotta go out there and give it your best. Be the leader, and inspire.

I just want to know when will that happen. Is he basically saving himself to see if we have Dwight and then go hard?

It's frustrating. As many of you know, I'm a big Illini fan so I've been sympathetic/apologetic to Deron's output, but when we're letting guys like Jeremy Lin look like prime Steve Nash on us.. we've got a problem. Sure he was getting burned in pick and rolls cause our defense on that was terrible..but come on Deron! Fight your way out!

What you bolded is hopefully what is holding him back. I hope this is not the Deron that we will continue to see. Deron is the key to winning every single night. When Deron plays well so does the rest of the team. Whe he does not it really hurts the team. Like big time. I don't like his attitude so far. Hopefully even Brook coming backs gives Deron the rush this team needs to succeed.

Offense wise, Derons just not used to being a 25 point scorer in my opinion. Hes had stretches when hes scored 25+ a game but I dont think he can consistenly do it every night.

His defense though I agree, it should be better. Hes one of the stronger PGs in the league (shows that with his post up skills) so he should be able to hold other star PG's in check. But he isnt, Jeremy Lin just handed him his ass last night. You cant rely on your bigs to block everything.

big, strong PG's generally struggle to guard speedy PG's. even during kidd's prime, he often needed kittles with his long arms to guard the other point.

one thing about deron, he had a pretty badass defensive team behind him in jerry sloan's jazz. i mean, more than just bigs to back him up. i had to stop watching the jazz at a certain point because their borderline dirty tactics got me pretty upset. but no question, they were effective tactics.

d-will needs a team that complements him, and i don't think he has that right now...

i read an interesting comment earlier on ND but can't find it now. but to paraphrase:

Quote:

going back to that first nets versus knicks meeting where jeremy lin first caught on fire, if d-will had actually played good defense on the guy, lin probably would have been subbed out for toney douglas or someone, then quite likely released later on since the knicks needed the roster spot and didn't think that highly of him at the time.

so linsanity might never have happened, and the knicks would have most likely continued their extremely embarrassing season.

and as much as i'm on the lin bandwagon, that's not a total reach IMO.